The Sustany® Foundation held its first annual conference at the Stetson University College of Law’s Tampa Law Center in the Smith Courtroom on Friday, April 13th from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The topic for 2012’s Conference was “Climate Change in Tampa Bay.” Speakers from the University of South Florida, the University of Tampa and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center delivered brief presentations and took questions from attendees.
Here are details from the event:
At 2:15 pm the first session will be “Introduction to the Science of Climate Change” with Dr. Compton Tucker of NASA and Dr. Mark Stewart, Dr. Jeffrey Ryan and Dr. Frank Edgar Muller-Karger – all from USF .
The second session at 4:00 addresses “Winners and Losers – the Economics of Climate Change” with Royal Gardner and Paul Boudreaux of Stetson and Luisella Mazzone and Dr. Sharon Hanna-West both from USF.
At 5:30 pm an open Q & A with the full panel will further explore these issues.
This event is free to the public, and light refreshments will be served. Attendees may come to one panel or both.
Conference Schedule
The scheduled panels, with participants and topics, are as follows:
Opening Remarks 2:00 pm- 2:05 pm
Robert C. Sanchez, Sustany® Co-Founder
First Session – 2:10 pm – 3:45 pm
Introduction to the Science of Climate Change
Dr. Compton Tucker (NASA)
“Measuring the Rise in Sea Level”
Dr. Mark Stewart (USF)
“The Effect of Sea Level Rise in Florida”
Dr. Jeffrey Ryan (USF)
“NSF Programs on Educating the Public”
Dr. Frank Edgar Muller-Karger (USF)
“The Oceans, Humans and Change: Understanding For New Opportunities”
Second Session 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Winners and Losers – the Economics of Climate Change
Dean Royal Gardner (Stetson)
“Climate Change and Environmental Credit Markets”
Professor Paul Boudreaux (Stetson)
“The Hidden Time-Bomb of Global Warming in Florida: Agriculture”
Luisella Mazzone (UT)
“The Local Food Movement in Tampa”
Dr. Sharon Hanna-West (USF)
“Sustainability and the Role of Business: Embracing and Driving Change – Opportunities for Tampa Bay”
Q & A with all panelists 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Based on available time, panelists and audience participation
About the Panelists
Paul Boudreaux is professor at Stetson University College of Law; among his research interests are Environmental Law, Land Use, and Property. He taught a course on Global Climate Change and International law in Stetson’s program in China in 2012. He received a J.D. from the University of Virginia and a LL.M from Georgetown. Before teaching, he litigated environmental cases for the federal government at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Dean Gardner is Interim Dean at Stetson University College of Law. His areas of teaching and research include environmental and international law. He graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School. Before becoming a faculty member at Stetson, he served in the Army General Counsel’s office as the Department of the Army’s principal wetland attorney and worked for the Department of Defense, where he participated in negotiating international agreements with Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan, and Belarus to facilitate the dismantlement of the former Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons.
Sharon Hanna-West is an Exide Distinguished Lecturer at the University of South Florida’s College of Business Administration where she teaches Social, Ethical and Legal Systems; Ethics, Law and Sustainable Business Practices; and Environmental law and Issues in Sustainable Enterprise. She studies solutions to climate change and determining how to make sustainable practices affordable and whenever possible, profitable. She earned her J.D. from the University of Florida, where she focused on environmental law.
Luisella Mazzone is an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa where she teaches Biology and Environmental Science. She earned her Master of Science in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of South Florida.
Dr. Frank Edgar Muller-Karger is a biological oceanographer (Professor) at the College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, where he directs the International Ocean Institute-USA (IOI-USA) and the Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS). He earned his PhD in Marine and Estuarine Sciences from the University of Maryland. The focus of his present work is to assess the importance of continental margins, including areas of upwelling, river discharge, and coral reefs in the global carbon budget, using satellites that measure ocean color and sea surface temperature.
Dr. Jeffrey Ryan has been a faculty member in the University of South Florida’s Geology Department since 1996 and currently serves as Professor and Chair of the Geology Department. Some of his research interests include geochemistry and petrology of subduction zones; petrogenesis of ultramafic rocks and meteoritic/planetary geochemistry. He earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1989.
Dr. Mark Stewart is a professor at the University of South Florida’s Geology Department. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in hydrology, mathematical modeling, global climate change and oceanography. His research interests are in hydrology, mathematical modeling of natural systems, environmental geophysics, and water resources management. He earned his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Compton Tucker is a Physical Scientist in the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory within the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. He was among the first researchers to employ coarse-resolution satellite data to exploit the time domain for studying global photosynthesis on land, determining land cover, monitoring droughts, providing famine early warning, and predicting ecologically-coupled disease outbreaks. He earned his PhD in 1975 from Colorado State University.